COD with health packs, zero sprinting, and on the GameCube?!???! Based as fuck!
COD really was a different series prior to Modern Warfare and whether it changed for the better or worse depends on personal preference. In stark contrast to the run and gun, fast-paced action we see today, Finest Hour perfectly encapsulates old-style COD's gritty atmosphere and slower pacing.
For a World War II campaign, Finest Hour does a good job showing different perspectives of the war which serves both the scope of the narrative and the variety of missions on hand. Granted, it's hard to become attached to any specific character when it's constantly swapping between perspectives and doesn't develop anything, but I think it serves its purpose for giving enough context to really understand the stakes in each mission. The introduction mission is amazing as, for as cheesy and overused as this sounds, it really feels like you're there in the war with chaos spewing from all sides as countless Russian soldiers charge and die before your eyes. There's quite an impressive amount of detail and it's all the more immersive since you're in control throughout this situation rather than if this was all crammed in a cutscene.
Unfortunately, the game really shows its age in some areas. Movement in general is really slow and while the pace of combat never demands anything too crazy from the player, sometimes the sluggish aiming is enough for enemies to get a few extra hits in that feel a bit unfair. Additionally, sometimes a well aimed grenade from an enemy can make it nigh impossible to get away from without taking some damage. I'm also not sure if something was up with my copy of the game but I found the visuals very dark for some reason? Like sometimes I couldn't see where enemies were firing from in dimly lit areas and that was a bit of a pain. Idk I've never had this issue with any other game but every gameplay video I find of this game looks a lot brighter.
A lot of this wouldn't annoy me all THAT much if it wasn't for the game's most crippling flaw: the fucking checkpoint system. Who did this? Who thought it was a good idea to have the player redo 20+ minutes of gameplay at a time due to no checkpoints or a quicksave feature? You're often lucky if you get one scripted checkpoint in the middle of a mission as that'll be all you get most of the time. This led to the later missions of this game being a lot more frustrating and I was honestly relieved to finish the last couple parts of the game.
It's a competent shooter at the end of the day as it works well enough for the GameCube and has some solid missions in there, but I would be lying if I said this game didn't become a chore to play due to those scarce checkpoints.
COD really was a different series prior to Modern Warfare and whether it changed for the better or worse depends on personal preference. In stark contrast to the run and gun, fast-paced action we see today, Finest Hour perfectly encapsulates old-style COD's gritty atmosphere and slower pacing.
For a World War II campaign, Finest Hour does a good job showing different perspectives of the war which serves both the scope of the narrative and the variety of missions on hand. Granted, it's hard to become attached to any specific character when it's constantly swapping between perspectives and doesn't develop anything, but I think it serves its purpose for giving enough context to really understand the stakes in each mission. The introduction mission is amazing as, for as cheesy and overused as this sounds, it really feels like you're there in the war with chaos spewing from all sides as countless Russian soldiers charge and die before your eyes. There's quite an impressive amount of detail and it's all the more immersive since you're in control throughout this situation rather than if this was all crammed in a cutscene.
Unfortunately, the game really shows its age in some areas. Movement in general is really slow and while the pace of combat never demands anything too crazy from the player, sometimes the sluggish aiming is enough for enemies to get a few extra hits in that feel a bit unfair. Additionally, sometimes a well aimed grenade from an enemy can make it nigh impossible to get away from without taking some damage. I'm also not sure if something was up with my copy of the game but I found the visuals very dark for some reason? Like sometimes I couldn't see where enemies were firing from in dimly lit areas and that was a bit of a pain. Idk I've never had this issue with any other game but every gameplay video I find of this game looks a lot brighter.
A lot of this wouldn't annoy me all THAT much if it wasn't for the game's most crippling flaw: the fucking checkpoint system. Who did this? Who thought it was a good idea to have the player redo 20+ minutes of gameplay at a time due to no checkpoints or a quicksave feature? You're often lucky if you get one scripted checkpoint in the middle of a mission as that'll be all you get most of the time. This led to the later missions of this game being a lot more frustrating and I was honestly relieved to finish the last couple parts of the game.
It's a competent shooter at the end of the day as it works well enough for the GameCube and has some solid missions in there, but I would be lying if I said this game didn't become a chore to play due to those scarce checkpoints.